Richard Hacksaw Harney--how did WE miss

Subject: Folklore: Richard Hacksaw Harney--how did WE miss
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 11:43 AM

I'm listening to some tracks done in the 1970s---the year before he died. Richard Hacksaw Harney was a giant of a guitar player from the Mississippi Delta. Born in Money, Mississippi (where Emmet Till was brutally killed in the 1950s) he was one of the greats who TAUGHT Robert Johnson. Big Joe Williams said he could cut anybody.

Richard Harney made his living as a piano tuner and rebuilder in the Delta. Always had his repair kit with him, and he used a "hacksaw" to fashion piano keys out of any materials he could get his hands on. (How he got his name.)

Adelphi Records recorded these few tracks of the man---and issued them just about too late for them to be listened to seriously by the blues and guitar "re-discoverers" finding the older blues greats then still alive both in the south and in the northern cities in the 1960s. At the time he made these few tracks, Richard "Hacksaw" Harney hadn't owned a guitar for TWENTY YEARS. They had handed him a guitr, said, "Play!" And these few gems are what came out that day!

My question for the blues guys from the 1960s is:

Stephen Grossman, Dick Spottswood, Joe Bussard, Bob Koester, John Hammond, Paul Geremia, Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Pete Welding, Alan Lomax (if he was still alive)----- HOW DID WE MISS FINDING AND HEARING THIS MAN??? Big Joe Williams sure did talk about him...

He would've been a natural for the University Of Chicago Folk Festivals !

My thanks to Stewie in Darwin, N.T. for introducing me to this man's only CD: Richard Hacksaw Harney--SWEET MAN   -- GCD 9909
Genes CD Co.
Box 7778
Silver Spring, MD 20907

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Folklore: Richard Hacksaw Harney--how did WE miss
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 12:25 PM

But he WAS found, by Mike Stewart I believe, and that is why you can now listen to the recordings made at the time. The fact that it wasn't too long after this that he died is unfortunate. If you want to hear him in earler recordings he was one part of the back-up duo 'Pet & Can'. Go to your copy of Dixon and Godrich's Blues and Gospel Records to find them.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Richard Hacksaw Harney--how did WE miss
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 11:47 PM

There is a nice cover of Roy Bookbinder doing a tune he learned from Hacksaw HERE. (The video is some kid who must love the old tunes.:-)

IF you click on "more" there is a neat story from Roy about Hacksaw.

Subject: RE: Richard Hacksaw Harney--how did WE miss
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 11:56 PM

How VERY nice.

Sincerely